DANIEL Martin has won the Tour of Catalonia, with the Irish rider's lead never seriously threatened on the seventh and final stage in Barcelona.

Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) was the winner of the 122km ride from El Vendrell into the Catalan capital as he pipped David Lopez Garcia (Sky) and Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard) on the line.

Australia's Travis Meyer (OGE) finished in the bunch, officially eighth but with the same time as De Gendt.

However, it was Martin, riding for Garmin Sharp, who took the overall victory as he shadowed second-placed Joaquim Rodriguez to the line to ensure his 17 second lead wasn't eroded, with Michele Scarponi finishing third.

Martin took a decisive hold of the tour on Thursday when he won the gruelling 217km trek to Port Aine after Alejandro Valverde, who had led after the third stage, was forced to retire after a crash.

The 26-year-old Birmingham-born Irishman won the stage in style, finishing 36 seconds ahead of Rodriguez to open a 10 second gap in the overall standings that he had extended to 17 seconds after Saturday's sixth stage.

Last year's Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins also suffered on Thursday's fourth stage as he lost over a minute on Martin and eventually finished 54 seconds back in fifth.

Martin's lead never looked in danger on the final day as the contenders remained in the peloton for the majority of the stage.

A leading group of 10 riders made a break early on and had built up a sizeable three-and-a-half minute advantage by the 50km mark.

However, their lead was slowly whittled down by the peloton and they were eventually caught as the race entered the first of seven laps around Montujic.

De Gendt, Lopez and Tim Wellens (Lotto Belisol) then hit the front and were joined by Scarponi and Kiserlovski five kilometres later.

Lopez seemed to have made a decisive break with 5km to go but decided to reserve his energy for the sprint finish than trying to maintain his lead until the end and was just edged out by De Gendt.

Scarponi's late push to finish fourth was enough though to move him into third in the overall standings ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Sagan wins Ghent-Wevelgem

In Wevelgem, Belgium, Slovakia's in-form Peter Sagan came home alone to win the 75th edition of the Ghent-Wevelgem classic, the Cannondale rider crossing the line almost half a minute clear of Slovenian Borut Bozic.

Belgium's Greg Van Avermaet took third.

Sagan, 23, who was part of an 11-man breakaway group, made his push for victory three-and-a-half kilometres from the line for his sixth success of the season.

The one day race in Flanders, shortened by 50 kilometres to 183.7km due to the extreme cold, lost some of its lustre when the two race favourites, Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara and local hope Tom Boonen, failed to finish.

Cancellara, mindful of the need to conserve his energy for next weekend's Tour of Flanders, pulled out 69km from the finish.

Boonen's race came to a premature end when he crashed, injuring his right knee, four kilometres further down the road.

Sagan, who was second in last week's Milan-San Remo and in Friday's E3 race, again underlined he is a major threat to Cancellera in the upcoming Tour of Flanders.

"I've been waiting to win one of the big northern classic races, which I rate the best of all and which really inspire me as they are made for riders like me," he said.

"This race might not be on the same level as the Milan-San Remo or the Paris-Roubaix but all the same it's my first major win in a classic and I'm very proud of it."